Club programs give young athletes opportunities to play such sports as soccer, softball, swimming and volleyball year-round. They help provide the skills and polish necessary to compete at the high school, college and national levels. Clubs can often provide better facilities, stronger competition, more personal attention and professional expertise in a particular sport. But at what cost? Club sports can be a lucrative business.

When you aspire to greatness, there are some great risks. That is the most sound advice that can be given athletes who choose to become specialists, who devote the bulk of their time to one sport in the pursuit of the almighty scholarship. Club sports provide the teaching that gives many of today's athletes the edge they need to receive local and national attention. That often leads to college scholarships. That's a good thing.

In considering who will play in the fledgling organization known as Major League Soccer, perhaps the simplest and quickest way of defining the situation is to answer the question with a question. Who won't play? For starters, we'll take a look at the World Cup roster of the U.S. national team and start crossing off players who have been under contract and might be returning to teams in Mexico and Europe.

The Seahawks will play at Husky Stadium and the Mariners might head to Tacoma while crews scrape loose ceiling tiles off the Kingdome. Because of the stadium's week-old tile problem, the Seahawks said Tuesday they will move their home exhibition opener on Aug. 13 against Tampa Bay to the University of Washington's stadium. The Mariners are awaiting complete league and union approval to use Tacoma's Cheney Stadium for their Aug. 2-10 home stand, which includes three games against the Angels.

Cuban President Fidel Castro, speaking at an awards ceremony in Mexico City, said his country will send a team to the Barcelona Olympics, but it will be smaller team than usual and will concentrate on sports in which the country had its best chances to win medals.

Rams 7, Buffalo 40. Raiders 13, Denver 17. Trojans 31, San Diego State (San Diego State?) 31. Dodgers in last place, 26 1/2 games out. Angels near next-to-last, 17 1/2 games out. Lakers fading, Bruins praying. What has happened? When did we go from being the sports capital of the universe to being the sports cellar of the universe? Hey, a Chuck Knox team doesn't lose by 33 points. The other guys don't get the ball that much. Knox teams lose --if they lose -- 17-14 , 21-20.